Saturday's Ref...

[+HawkeyeTheGnu]

...is Bobby Madden.

 

Good? Bad?

[ICTRoughi]

Last game he was the referee for our game was last April 0-0 with Aberdeen.

Could've been worse, could've been Willie Collum

[caleyboy]

Thank god it isn't that little "man" - he gives us NOTHING!

[+HawkeyeTheGnu]

Don't think Collum is biased, just incredibly incompetent. Loves a red card.

[Renegade]

Madden is mediocre IIRC.  Collum on the other hand is just hideous and the amount of red cards he dishes out is very suspicious.

[Scarlet Pimple]

C'monn--you can't blame Willie --all he does is collum the way he sees it.  

[+HawkeyeTheGnu]

C'monn--you can't blame Willie --all he does is collum the way he sees it.  

 

Then he must be fecking blind!

[Sneckboy]

Prior to last season, Collum had only ever sent off 1 ICT player. The stats show he's by no means the worst. Nobody gets their hackles up at the mention of say, Alan Muir. Who?! Collum's dished us 4 reds in 31 games, Muir's sent-off 4 in just 18, for example.

 

ICT sendings-off since our first SPL game of 2004. Includes all competitions.

 

Referee               ICT games    ICT red cards     games-to-red ratio

active or (retired)

 

Edited August 21, 2014 by Sneckboy

[+HawkeyeTheGnu]

Prior to last season, Collum had only ever sent off 1 ICT player. The stats show he's by no means the worst. Nobody gets their hackles up at the mention of say, Alan Muir. Who?! Collum's dished us 4 reds in 31 games, Muir's sent-off 4 in just 18, for example.

 

The 'he likes a red card' comment was more of a general one.

 

However, the fact that his red card count against us rose by 3 last season would suggest that he realised his mistake.He is far too eager, in general, to flash the red card.

[Huisdean]

Couldn't agree more Hawkeye. He seems to take no time to think about things (the sign of a good referee)and flashes cards automatically. Dreadful dreadful referee but the majority on the list, who still are referees are not a huge lot better.

[Sneckboy]

From another angle, why does flashing a red-card make a referee 'terrible'!? I've seen me shouting at the TV at referees for not getting their cards out! 

It sometimes takes a strong referee to do such. Have you never been frustrated at referees 'chickening out' of big decisions at the likes of Ibrox or Parkhead, over the years?

 

An example from earlier this week was the Arsenal game where I tuned-in near the end - an Arsenal player committed a clearly bookable foul, and the commentator said 'he could be in trouble here' as he was already on a yellow. But nothing was given. I thought it was a terrible decision.

A few minutes later, in the post-match highlights, I learned that Arsenal had already had a man sent-off. That explained it for me!

 

Anyway, the whole point of me putting up that graphic was to dispel the persistent myth about Collum - it displays the averages over a 10 year period, not just last season!

[+HawkeyeTheGnu]

From another angle, why does flashing a red-card make a referee 'terrible'!? I've seen me shouting at the TV at referees for not getting their cards out! 

It sometimes takes a strong referee to do such. Have you never been frustrated at referees 'chickening out' of big decisions at the likes of Ibrox or Parkhead, over the years?

 

An example from earlier this week was the Arsenal game where I tuned-in near the end - an Arsenal player committed a clearly bookable foul, and the commentator said 'he could be in trouble here' as he was already on a yellow. But nothing was given. I thought it was a terrible decision.

A few minutes later, in the post-match highlights, I learned that Arsenal had already had a man sent-off. That explained it for me!

 

Anyway, the whole point of me putting up that graphic was to dispel the persistent myth about Collum - it displays the averages over a 10 year period, not just last season!

 

It is not flashing of the card I object to, it is the sense that he just cannot wait to get it out, and is just looking for a reason to use it. A second to think would make it look like a considered decision rather than a knee-jerk reaction. Look at the Edinburgh Derby, he was itching to show Sow the red card (not a bad decision, IMO). Then the Stevenson/Walker incident at the end he gives nothing, where two red cards would have been justified. He is incapabale of controlling a game. Compare Stevenson's stamp to the two challenges he gave red cards to Tansey & Watkins against Dundee Utd, then you can see his consistency and decision making are both suspect. I wish the SFA would grow a pair and start issuing notices of compliant to officials who miss stuff that is under their nose, or get decisions badly wrong.

 

Frustrated yes, surprised no.

 

It dosen't explain it. It was a terrible decision. It is either bookable or not. There is no context.

 

What myth dose it dispel? That Collum is a terrible ref? His performance in the St Mirren game last season was more than enough to cement that opinion as fact.

[Guest]

Although he has only reffed 6 of our games, I can see John Beaton maintaining his ratio. Brandishes red cards so rashly.

[Sneckboy]

It's a thankless task being a referee! Damned if they do...damned if they don't. Trigger-happy and too quick if they flash a card instantly, indecisive and weak if they take their time and/or take no action.

We've got to remember they're human and will make mistakes. They don't have the benefit of multiple, slow-motion, different-angled replays. I genuinely don't think they go out to penalise certain clubs. I try to look at it objectively - we benefit from 'bad' decisions from refs but tend to remember more the one's that go against us.

One of the worst from last season was Carl Tremarco's reckless lunge at a County player which, for me, merited an ordering-off! Mind you, I wasn't complaining at the time - but, had it been the other way round, I'd have been raging!

 

That said, and as I mentioned, they are only human - and they may well be 'reluctant' to make certain calls in some situations. All-be-it on a subconscious level.

For example, Referee X may be about to officiate say, St Mirren v Dundee United. He'll be acutely aware of his 'stats' of never having sent-off a St Mirren player in his career, yet has a 'history' of 5 Dundee Utd dismissals. He would take the field, be professional and officiate the game as he saw fit, but on an innate level, he'd be hoping there weren't any 'decisions to be made' that would put him in a position to send-off a Utd player. Conversely, when or if, he was dismissing a St Mirren player, deep down inside, he'd be thinking to himself 'they can't accuse me of being biased against them - it's the first time I've ever sent-off one of their guys'.

 

It must also be remembered that the referees themselves are being monitored by an observer, who rates and reports on all aspects of their performance.

We're fickle, us fans. It's rare to hear the losing team complimenting the referee - indeed, I'm still waiting for an instance where both sets of fans have agreed that the referee has had a good game!

[Scarlet Pimple]

Due to a challenge with my eyesight I misread a post above as refugees instead of referees.

 I.e many a word spoken in jest.......

[AlexJones]

Hat tip to todays ref.  He gave very few soft free kicks and didn't flash a card once. The result, a free flowing game.

 

I get the impression officials have been told to tighten up. This was definitely evident at the World Cup. It's much harder to 'win' a free kick these days, and I for one applaud that.

[Renegade]

Thought he was pretty hopeless and pretty biased myself.